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BBC News
4 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Polish knife-edge presidential vote pits liberal mayor against conservative
Poles will vote for a new president on Sunday in a tight election that will have major consequences for the future of the country's pro-EU polls say Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and national conservative historian Karol Nawrocki are running neck and president is a largely ceremonial role, but it does come with significant negative president has the right to veto legislation, and the coalition government lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn it. Karol Nawrocki is a staunch opponent of Donald Tusk's coalition, and he is expected to use the veto as much if not more frequently than the incumbent conservative President Andrzej Duda, who cannot run for a third consecutive has been unable to deliver many of his campaign promises since taking office 18 months ago due to Duda's veto and divisions within his coalition which includes conservatives, centrists and promised Polish women legal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy and voters he would repair the rule of law in the judiciary. Many critics say Poland's top courts were politicised under the previous Law and Justice-led (PiS) government that lost power in late both issues, Tusk has made little narrowly winning the election's first round on 18 May, Rafal Trzaskowski pledged to co-operate with the government to accomplish candidate mobilises their voters in Sunday's second round run-off will be key to who becomes the next president. Another significant factor is who can attract the votes of two far-right candidates who placed third and fourth in the first anti-establishment candidates received three times as many votes as they did in the last presidential election in those voters support Nawrocki's socially conservative views, some libertarians disagree with his support for generous state benefits for the less candidates led large, rival patriotic marches in Warsaw last Sunday to show who had the biggest all the participants at Nawrocki's rally carried the red-and-white Polish flag. No-one had the blue EU flag. One banner read "Enough of Tusk's [demolition] of democracy".Magdalena and her sister Marta said Nawrocki's patriotism was important. "We care first for our family, then the nation and after that the world," Magdalena told me."A lot of politicians say, 'Oh, we can't do that because what will the Germans think about us?' Sorry, I don't care what they think," she said. Karol Nawrocki, 42, is head of the Institute of National Remembrance, a state body that investigates crimes dating back to the communist era and World War Two. He was relatively unknown nationally before he was picked by PiS to to the CBOS polling company, voters view him as someone who supports traditional Catholic values and stands up for average Poles, including small farmers who consider themselves threatened by the EU's Green Deal limiting the use of chemicals and greenhouse typical voter is seen as aged over 40, conservative and family-oriented and living in the countryside or small towns and he was director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk where he changed the exhibition to emphasise Polish heroism and suffering during the conflict.A keen amateur footballer and boxer, he likes to publish images of himself working out on social strongman image has been pushed by Polish and foreign politicians alike. Ex-PM Mateusz Morawiecki posting a mock-up of Nawrocki as a Polish Captain America on social media. Supporter Magdalena said he wasn't particularly charismatic, but Poland needed "a strong man who will be stable when he's pushed by the world". Earlier this week, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem flew to a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Poland to endorse him as a "strong leader" like President Donald Trump."I just had the opportunity to meet with Karol and listen, he needs to be the next president of Poland," she said five days ahead of the said his rival Trzaskowski was "an absolute train wreck of a leader".Nawrocki's campaign has been bedevilled by revelations from his relatively unknown past, although so far the allegations appear not to have damaged his does not deny taking part in football hooligan brawls, and has called them "noble fights". But in that he is not alone, as several years ago Donald Tusk spoke of taking part in similar fights as a young he has strongly denied a series of other allegations - that he had links with gangsters and neo-Nazis; that he took advantage of an ill senior citizen to acquire his council flat at a huge discount; and that he helped arrange prostitutes for guests at the luxury Grand Hotel in the seaside resort of Sopot when he worked there as a security has said he will donate the flat to charity and threatened to sue the news website that published the prostitute story because it was a "pack of lies".Many of his supporters think the the stories were made up by the mainstream media, which they see as largely off the revelations, Nawrocki posted a video on social media set to an old Chumbawamba song, with the chorus, "I get knocked down, but I get up again". Trzaskowski's supporters have been more inclined to believe the allegations, with one man in Warsaw holding a banner reading: "No to the gangster".The son of a famous jazz pianist, the 53-year-old mayor of Warsaw is deputy leader of Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Platform is also speaks multiple languages who once served as Europe minister. He was joined in last Sunday's march in Warsaw by another liberal mayor who won the Romanian presidency earlier this month. Nicusur Dan told supporters they shared the same values of a united and strong European to CBOS, Trzaskowski's typical voter is in his 30s, fairly well-off and lives in a city. Voters see him as having left-liberal views supporting LGBT and migrants' his opponents see Trzaskowski as part of Poland's privileged elite, supporter Malgorzata, a statistician, told me he was "an intelligent, professional European. That's enough to be a president of Poland".Against a backdrop of war in neighbouring Ukraine and the Tusk government's tough stance against illegal migration, Trzaskowski has portrayed himself, artificially according to some voters, as a man who believes in a strong nation state and supporter, Bartosz, said he wanted Poland to remain safely anchored in Europe."We know history. In 1939, we counted on Britain and France, but nobody came. If we are partners with Europe politically and economically, then it's in their interests to support us," he said.
France 24
10 hours ago
- Politics
- France 24
Poland's nail-biter election: Could Warsaw turn on Brussels?
Europe 43:22 From the show Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafał Trzaskowski will need the kind of boost in turnout that propelled his counterpart from Bucharest to victory, Nicoşur Dan who last weekend came to campaign for the candidate from Donald Tusk's Civic Platform. Trzaskowski's not the only one with celebrity endorsements. Donald Trump dispatching his director of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to stump for nationalist right candidate Karol Nawrocki. The Law and Justice party of the outgoing Andrej Duda hopes to rally the 20-percent of voters who veered further to the right in the first round. In a nation where living standards have skyrocketed since joining the EU two decades ago, why are so many citizens eager to elect Eurosceptics? Would a Nawrocki win call time after just one year on the efforts of prime minister Tusk to undo the PiS' contentious rule of law reforms? Currently the former president of the European Council, seen here with the leaders of France and Germany, has positioned himself at the heart of Brussels policy making. Looking ahead, which direction do Poles want?
Gulf Today
a day ago
- Politics
- Gulf Today
Polish Trump fans gather to ‘Make Poland Great Again'
Anna Maria Jakubek, Agence France-Presse The crowd, some with signature red hats bearing US President Donald Trump's name, cheered when the man on the stage asked if they were happy that America was becoming great again. But instead of somewhere in the United States, this scene was playing out in an arena in a southern Polish city, complete with a dusting of red or blue "Make Poland Great Again" hats. Hundreds had come for the first Polish edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a US convention that has been around for decades and has become a celebration of Trump. The event in Rzeszow is a sharp signal of the hold the US leader's particular brand of conservatism has in Poland, which is days from picking a new president from a field that includes a big Trump fan. That candidate — nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki — was endorsed by a special guest at Tuesday's conference: US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who said: "He needs to be the next president of Poland." "We need you to elect the right leader. You will be the leaders that will turn Europe back to conservative values," the Trump ally told the crowd in Rzeszow. "If you elect a leader that will work with President Donald J. Trump, the Polish people will have an ally strong that will ensure that you will be able to fight off enemies that do not share your values," Noem said. "You will have strong borders. And protect your communities. And keep them safe... You will continue to have a US presence here. A military presence... And you will have equipment that is American made," she added. Nawrocki, who got a standing ovation at the conference, is a Trump fan and met the US leader at the White House earlier this month. He claimed Trump told him: "You will win". Poland's run-off election on Sunday is shaping up to be a very tight one in the polarised country of 38 million people, as the latest opinion surveys have the candidates tied. Nawrocki, who is backed by Poland's right-wing main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), will face off against pro-EU Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, the candidate of the ruling centrists led by former EU chief Donald Tusk. The event in Rzeszow, which was organised with Poland's right-wing TV Republika, was held in a region populated by conservative voters. "Are you happy that America is getting closer to being great again? Did the re-election of Donald Trump bring you joy, make you happy?" CPAC organiser Matt Schlapp asked the crowd, which responded with applause. "We thank you for your courage to be in this room, to stand with us as we fight a most venomous enemy," the chairman of the American Conservative Union said, decrying the "globalists" who he said threatened tenets like family, rule of law and freedom of religion. Vendors sold trucker hats with the slogan "Make Poland Great Again", CPAC Poland mugs and books including one by Nawrocki. While most of the Rzeszow crowd was in suits and ties — there were exceptions like Anna Maria Ziolkiewicz, who came dressed in Poland's national red-and-white colours with a Nawrocki election button on her lapel. "I'm a patriotic, religious person with right-wing views, so this event is right up my alley... There's a positive atmosphere," the 61-year-old accountant and history buff from the central city of Lodz told AFP. She praised Trump as "a wonderful man with character, brave and strong" -- though cautioned that he did not quite understand the danger posed by Russia. Ziolkiewicz believes Poland should be closer to the United States than to the European Union as "the US has never double-crossed us, never deceived us", while she said countries like France and Britain failed to help Poland at the start of World War II. Krzysztof Pietrzyk, a 43-year-old entrepreneur from nearby Lublin, regretted that the atmosphere at Tuesday's event was "a little bit too quiet". "I was hoping to have here more American style: loud and big," he said, recalling how tech billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk brandished a chainsaw on stage at this year's CPAC event near Washington. Donning a well-worn "Make Poland Great Again" hat, unemployed engineer Zenon Fabianowicz said he covered more than 700 kilometres (over 400 miles) from the western village of Krzeszyce to attend. Poland is a "pro-American society. We have a lot in common with the United States. And I think Trump also has a fondness for Poland," the 62-year-old said. "It's the first time CPAC is happening in Poland and I couldn't miss the opportunity."
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Business
- Russia Today
US lawmakers want Soros-linked Polish election ‘violations' addressed
US lawmakers have called on the European Commission to address suspected election fraud in Poland, voicing concern over what they describe as a biased approach ahead of the country's June 1 presidential runoff. In a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Brian Mast and fellow members expressed 'profound alarm' over developments 'undermining the integrity of democratic processes' in Poland. The letter cited foreign-funded online campaigns backing liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and the Polish government's refusal to release public funds to the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party. The concerns centered on political ads favoring Trzaskowski, backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition, which were allegedly financed from abroad. Poland's digital watchdog NASK earlier this month flagged paid Facebook ads that promoted Trzaskowski while targeting right-wing candidates Karol Nawrocki and Slawomir Mentzen. While the funding source remains unverified, a Polish outlet linked the campaign to a local NGO connected to US Democratic donor George Soros' Open Society Foundations. US lawmakers warned the campaign 'may have occurred in contravention of Polish law.' Another matter raised in the letter was the Polish government's refusal to release public campaign funds to the PiS party. The funds had previously been blocked due to the party's alleged spending violations during the 2023 parliamentary race. The Supreme Court later overturned the decision, but the verdict was issued by judges appointed under the former PiS-led administration – whom the current government considers illegitimate – and Warsaw has refused to comply and continued to withhold the money. The US lawmakers believe the move violates the rule of law. They also noted that despite the European Commission's vocal criticism and decision to withhold over $150 billion from Poland for alleged rule-of-law violations under the previous PiS government, it has been 'conspicuously silent' in this case. 'This double standard suggests a deliberate effort to tilt the electoral playing field. Such selective enforcement undermines the EU's credibility as a guardian of democratic principles,' they stated. 'These actions, occurring under the European Commission's watch, expose a troubling double-standard in the EU's approach to Poland's rule of law, which demands urgent attention.' The lawmakers requested a briefing with Commission representatives to discuss the concerns. Trzaskowski won 31.1% in the first round, while Nawrocki took 29.7%. Trzaskowski, seen as the pro-Brussels and pro-Ukraine frontrunner, backs increased defense spending and continued support for Kiev. Nawrocki also supports military aid for Ukraine, but opposes NATO and EU membership for Kiev unless Ukraine acknowledges World War II-era massacres of Poles. The European Commission has declined to comment directly on the letter. A spokesperson told Politico, however, that election oversight is a national matter and that the Commission 'does not address electoral processes.'
LeMonde
2 days ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
Poland's presidential election: Trump administration openly backs nationalist candidate
"I just had the opportunity to meet with Karol and listen: He needs to be the next president of Poland. Do you understand me?" It was 5:30 pm on Tuesday, May 27, and the conference hall near Rzeszów, in the Southeast of the country, where a Polish edition of the famous American Republican CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) forum was being held, erupted with excitement at these words from Kristi Noem. Visiting this Central European country for the first time, the US Secretary of Homeland Security declared, with the agreement of the American president, her support for Karol Nawrocki, the nationalist candidate in the second round of the presidential election scheduled for Sunday, June 1, which is set to be very close. In front of a room packed with Polish supporters of the candidate, this prominent Trump administration figure, known for her staunchly anti-immigration stance, said the candidate from the ultra-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party was "the right leader" to " turn Europe back to conservative values": "If you [elect] a leader that will work with President Donald J. Trump, the Polish people will have an ally strong that will ensure that you will be able to fight off enemies that do not share your values. You will have strong borders and protect your communities and keep them safe, and ensure that your citizens are respected every single day. You will continue to have a US presence here, a military presence. And you will have equipment that is American-made, that is high quality." She implied that Washington could link the continued presence of US troops in Poland to the election outcome.
